Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-12-14

Yet, when an attempt is made to justify
scheme which permits a tax to be laid upo
every consumer in the land for the benefl
ofour manufacturers, quite beyond rea
sonable d. mand for government regard,
suits the purposes of advocacy to call Ou
manufacturers infant industries, still need
ing the highest and greatest degree of favo
Federal legislation.
price Of domestic manufactures resulting
that
HIGHER WAGES MAY BE PAID TO OUR WORK
INGMEN
employed in manufactures than is paid fo
what is called the pauper labor of Europe
All will acknowledge the force of an argu
ment which involves the welfare and liberia
compensation of our lsboring people. Oul
labor is honorable in the eyes of every
American citizen, and as it lies at the
foundation of our development and progress
it's entitled without affectation or hypocrisy
to the utmost regard. The standard of oul
l.borers should not be measured by that oi
any other country less favored, and they are
entitled to their full share of all our advan-
tages. By the last census it is made to ap
pear that of the II, s92, ,099 of our popula-
tinn engaged in all kinds of industries. T.
870 493 are employed in agriculture, 094.
238 in professional and personal service q,
934, ,876 of whom are domestic servants and
laborers, J while $40 256 are employed in
trade and transportation, and 81, 1l2 arc
classed as employed in manufacturing and
mining. For present purposes, however,
the last number given should be considers
bly, reduced Without attempting to emu
merate all, it. will be conceded that there
should he deducted from those which it in-
cludes 375, 143 carpenters and joiners, 1885,.
172, 726 blacksmiths, 1873, 756 tailors and
tailorssaes. 102, ,473 masons, 76.24I butch
ers. Al 1909 bakers. 22,083 plasterers, and
891 engaged in manufacturing agricultu ural
implements. aggregate to 1874. .023, leav-
ing 2,623, ,0S9 persons employed in such
manufacturing industries as are claimed to
be
BENEFITED By HIGH TARIFF.
To these the appeal is made to save their
employment and maintain their wages by
resisting q change. There should be no dis
position to answer such suggestions by the
allegation that they ale in a minority among
those who labor, and, therefore, should
forego an advantage in the interest of low
prices for the majority. Their compensa-
tion, as it may be affected by the operation
of tariff laws, should at all times be scrupu-
lously kept in view; and yet, with slight re-
Election, they will not overlook the fact that
they are consumers with the rest; that they,
too, have their own wants and those of their
families to supply from the earnings; and
that the prices of the necessaries of life as
we'll as the amount of their wages will reg
ulate the measure Of their welfare and COM
fort, but the reduction of taxation demand
ed should be so measured as not to neces-
state or justify either the loss of employ
ment by the workingman or the lesseuing
of his wages; and the profits still remaining
to the manufacturer, after necessary read
justment, should furnish ne excuse for the
sacrifice of the interests of his employers
either in their opportunity to work or in the
diminution of their compensation; nor can
the workers i'll manufactures fail to under
stand that while high tariff is claimed to
be necessary to allow the payment of remu-
nerative wages, it certainly results in very
large increase in the price of nearly all sorts
of manufactures, which in almost countless
forms he needs for the use Of himself ard
bis family. He receives at the desk of his
employer his wages, and perhaps before he
reaches his home is obliged, in a purchase
for family use of an article which embraces
his own labor, to return, in the payment of
tie increase in price which the tariff per-
mits. the hard earned compensation of many
days Of toll.
TIE FARMER AND THE AeRICULTURIsT
who manufacture nothing, but who pay the
increased pro rata which the tariff imposes
upon every agricultural implement, upon
be wears, and upon all he uses and owns
except the increase of his hocks and herds,
and such things as his husbandrY produces
from the soil, is invited to aid in maintain
ing the present situation, and he is told that
high duty on imported wool is necessary
for the benefit of those who have sheep to
shear in order that the price of their wool
may be increased. They, of course, are no,
reminded that the farmer who has no sheep
is by this scheme obliged in bis purchase Of
clothing and woulen goods to pay tribute
to his fellow farmer as well as TO the mar u.
factnrer and mel chant. Nor is any mention
made of the fact that the sheep owners
themselves and their households must veal
clothing and use other articles manufacture
ed from the wool they sell at tariff prices,
and thus as consumers must return theil
share of this increased price to the trades
men. thiuk it may be fairly assumed tina,
large proportion of the sheep owned by
the farmers throughout the country are
found in small hocks, numbering from
twenty FIVE to fifty. The duty On the grade
of imp ,rted wool which these sheep yield il
ten cents ou each pound, if of the value o
thirty cents or less, and twelve cents if OF
the value of more than thirty cents. If the
liberal estimate of six pounds be allowed fol
each fleece, the duty thereon would be
sixty or seventy-twO cents, and this may De
taken as the utmost enhancement of the
price to the farmer by reason of this duty.
Eighteen dollars would thus represent the
increased price of the wool from twenty i've
sheep and thirty six dollars that from the
wool of fifty sheep, aud at present values
this addition would amount to about one
third of its price. II upon its sale the farm
er receives this or a less tariff profit the
wool leaves his hands charged with precise
" that sum, which in all It's changes will
adhere to it, until it reaches the consumer.
When manufactured into cloth and other
material for use, its cost is not only inc-eas-
ed to the extent of the farmers tariff profit,
but after further sum has been added for
the benefit of the manufacturers under the
operation of other tariff laws. In the
meantime the day arrives when the farmer
6uds it necessary to purchase wooden clothes
and material to clothe himself and family
for the winter.
wBEN HE FACES THE TRADEsMAN
for that purpose he discovers that be ia
obliged not only to return in the way of in
creased prices his tariff profit on the wool
he sold, and which then, perhaps, lies be-
fore him in manufactured form, but that he
must add a considerable sum thereto to
meet further increase in cost caused by a
tariff duty on the manufacture. Thus. in
the end, he is aroused to the fact that he
has paid upon moderate purchase. as a
result of the tariff scheme, which when he
sold his wool seemed So pr titable an in
crease 10 price; more than sufficient tn sweep
away all the tariff profit he received upon
,ho wooi ha nrnd ucod and eOld When che